The Sharp Focus is the new face of Boise Hawks coverage. Get thoughts and news from every aspect of the game, without ever having to leave your seat.

Focus On: The corner

Sometime after last night’s big victory against the Eugene Emeralds that moved the Hawks to 16-20, and gave them the third win in four games, I sat on the bus headed back to the motel.

It hit me: Somewhere I missed a turn.

At some point the Hawks went the direction of a confident, proud and fun baseball team. It happened subtly to me because I’ve seen them every day, but I tried to step back and view them from day one.

Wow.

Casey Kopitzke has told me over and over that the team has developed every day since he joined the team.

It’s a quote, and I wrote it down. But until yesterday it hadn’t really hit me just how deep the development goes.

Gary Van Tol, a coach for the Hawks, talked to me today about how the smallest success can spell progress for a team.

“The thing they don’t see in Boise,” he said, “is the progress from a mistake.”

That’s one huge asset of me being here. Take last night’s throwing error by Hak-Ju Lee.

He had commited so many already, I had begun to call him Hak-Ju “E”. But in the play he commited an error in, he got to a ball an average player would have no chance at. And then he made the wrong decision and threw it.

It’s a play he won’t make again.

“Now we’ve won,” Van Tol said.

Development is so important, that a simple mistake NOT being repeated means progress. And the winning trend for the Hawks has done nothing but speed that process.

INSIDE INFO: Here are the links I promised you yesterday. Check out the video of Hak-Ju and Jae-Hoon Ha dancing here:

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